Articles of manufacture, such as paper towels, comprising water-soluble polymer particles, such as water-soluble soil adsorbing polymer particles, are known in the art. Such water-soluble soil adsorbing polymer particles have been delivered to such articles of manufacture in the form of inverse emulsions (where the water-soluble polymer particles are present in a dispersed aqueous phase (discontinuous aqueous phase) within a continuous hydrocarbon fluid phase) and/or dewatered inverse emulsions (“dewatered emulsions”) (where the water-soluble polymer particles are present in a dispersed non-aqueous phase (discontinuous non-aqueous phase) within a continuous hydrocarbon fluid phase wherein the hydrocarbon fluid phase).
The articles of manufacture comprising the inverse emulsions, such as Hyperfloc® NE823F, commercially available from HyChem, Inc., a fully-owned subsidiary of SNF, Inc., are undesirable for use on articles of manufacture, such as paper towels, due to excessive flocculation of the inverse emulsions and/or components thereof, which may cause process equipment failures, such as extruder head and/or spray nozzle plugging, and they exhibit a high VOC content, which is greater than about 20% by weight of the neat emulsion.
The known articles of manufacture comprising dewatered emulsions, such as Hyperfloc® ND823, AD589, and CD864, also commercially available from HyChem, exhibit significantly improved shear stability compared to the inverse emulsions, such as NE823F, which results in the elimination and/or dramatic reduction of process equipment failures, such as the elimination and/or reduction of extruder head and/or spray nozzle plugging. However, such dewatered emulsions contain a non-aqueous continuous phase, such as an oil or “solvent”, for example LPA 210, which is commercially available from Sasol, that exhibits a VOC content of greater than 60%, for example greater than 70%, as measured according to the VOC Test Method. As a result, even though these dewatered emulsions are known to be useful in water treatment processes, they are not optimal for use on articles of manufacture, such as paper towels. One negative of using such dewatered emulsions on articles of manufacture, such as paper towels, is the fugitive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that may emit from the high “VOC content” about 10% by weight of the neat dewatered emulsions during production of the articles of manufacture and/or use of the articles of manufacture.
Accordingly, even though the known dewatered emulsions exhibit lower VOC content than their associated inverse emulsions, one problem faced by formulators of articles of manufacture is how to make an article of manufacture comprising water-soluble polymer particles, for example water-soluble soil adsorbing polymer particles, such that the process of making the article of manufacture and/or the article of manufacture itself does not contain a hydrocarbon fluid that exhibits a high VOC content of greater than 60% and/or greater than 70% and/or a dewatered emulsion that exhibits a high VOC content of greater than 6% and/or an inverse emulsion of greater than 20% as measured according to the VOC Test Method described herein. VOCs associated with these articles of manufacture are referred to as fugitive VOCs as measured by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Method 24. To permit release of these high levels of VOCs requires extensive environmental measures including timely and costly major VOC permits and/or costly equipment and systems to manage the VOCs.
Accordingly, there is a need for an article of manufacture, such as a paper towel, that comprises water-soluble polymer particles, wherein the articles of manufacture and/or the process of making such articles of manufacture contain a hydrocarbon fluid that exhibits a VOC content of less than 60% and/or a dewatered emulsion that exhibits a high VOC content of greater than 6% and/or an inverse emulsion of greater than 20% as measured according to the VOC Test Method described herein, and a method for making such articles of manufacture hat overcomes the negatives described above.